They say the Labor Party has found its man to take the fight to Liberal candidate Angus Taylor at the next election and is stalling while the candidate finishes up a contract with the Commonwealth Government.

That man, they say, is Yass Valley resident Michael Pilbrow.

Mr Lucas, the president of the Hume Labor Party branch, says a candidate will be finalised once preselection is completed next month.

Mr Schultz, however, says the Labor Party is just going through the motions. And he’s not alone. His claims are backed by a senior Labor source, Liberal Party members and some prominent Goulburn community identities who have contacted the Post.

“It’s the worst kept secret in town,” Mr Schultz, who’ll step down from federal politics at the September election, wrote in the letters to the editor section of Wednesday’s Yass Tribune.

“I believe Mr Pilbrow is in the process of extracting himself from his business pecuniary interests arising out of contracts, which I am reliably informed he currently has with the Commonwealth, so that he is not disqualified from being a candidate.”

Section 44 of the Australian Constitution prohibits a political candidate from having a pecuniary interest with the Public Service of the Commonwealth.

Mr Pilbrow didn’t return the Post’s calls.

Mr Taylor told the Post: “I welcome the late starter to the race. We now need to start having a debate about the issues central to Hume and Australia.”

The Labor Party has been under pressure to announce its candidate since the Liberals backed Mr Taylor to take over from Mr Schultz last May.

That pressure stems from its decision to stand an outof-town candidate at the 2011 NSW election.

Not only was Crystal Validakis from outside of the Goulburn electorate, she didn’t once set foot here during the campaign.

She received 14.7 per cent of the primary vote, while the incumbent Pru Goward earned a 60.1 per cent return.

This time, however, the Labor Party is playing to win, Mr Lucas says.

“The Liberal Party’s going to get a bit of a shock. We’re going to come out fighting,” he said.

Mr Lucas said preselection would be pushed back until the end of April. It was initially estimated to be finalised by the end of this month.

Last year a Labor Party spokesman said the candidate would up-and-running in the election campaign by February.

Mr Lucas denied a candidate had already been handpicked.

“We are still going through the preselection process. There could be more than one person nominate, it’s not finalised yet,” he said.

“It is still almost six months out from the election.” The federal election will be conducted in 183 days’ time on September 14.